okay so i've just watched the tom felton meets the superfans and it was interesting... just to see the lengths that some fans go to get as they see it closer to the person they like... i guess to them it is more than like... to be honest i'd never heard of tom felton before or see the harry potter films... but i have seen hero worship for want of a better word. i have had in the past fan mail for graham sent to me... what was interesting was the different types of people... so what type of fan are you? have you ever waited for an autograph of graham? why did you want to do it... this is something that i find interesting in a way... i'm not asking in a way to laugh... fans are what makes any artist...so what's your thoughts.... anyone who has not posted before or not joined the forum... i'd like to hear your views on this and your experience of being a graham coxon fan or a fan of someone else

I did ask him to sign Crow Sit on Blood Tree for me at Mode, which he kindly did! I'm not sure why, I don't 'bother' celebrities usually, not that I see that many! I bumped into Alastair Campbell a couple of years ago and didn't accost him haha (and I do like him), let's see who else... Ah yes, I saw Trevor MacDonald at St Pancras station once, didn't approach him either .

I asked Lou Barlow to sing my Defend Yourself vynil in London about three years ago too, I guess with artists like LB and Graham you just never know when you might be seeing them live again, so you have to sort of grab your chance when you can. I think it's nice to have a record/cd signed, sort of like a memento of the day.

I wouldn't go any further than that, like wait outside a hotel for hours on end, nothing wrong with that sort of thing but it's just not the person I am. I wasn't even sure about approaching G outside of Mode and was dilly dallying for a while, Mish can attest to that! I guess I just feel silly... but it was nice to have the CD signed, and he was very nice and polite - so hopefully I didn't bother him too much.

hello - i've always felt strongly about letting "artists" have some privacy in public
at a show - before - during - or after - is the time to let your love flow.

the only autograph i ever "went after" was King buzzo's (from the Melvins)
after the early sound check at a tavern in Tacoma washington
got buzz to sign my Hostile Ambient TakeOver cd
i was tongue-tied for sure - but he was very gracious.

i want to say the same thing about graham coxon
all the encounters with GC he was gracious and friendly
they were all aftershow meet-ups with friends and forum peeps

good replies... i agree pretty much with what has been said regarding what is acceptable and what is not from the fans. what i'd also say is fans spend a lot of time and money going to gigs and buying the albums, so for that reason an artist should give fans something back, be that a pic an autograph or just a few words. really it's not asking a lot. what i do have a problem with fans who are a bit obsessive and i have seen more than a few over the years.

as for me, the last time i asked anyone for an autograph - you didn't have phones to take pics and stuff like that in those days - was when i was a kid. for a short period i collected autographs of footballers. i had a book that I kept them in - i think that lasted for a couple of years and that was it. but yeah i can see that getting a an album cover signed is a good thing to have.

hllo steve - yeah - i asked buzzo (aka King Buzzo) to sign the actual plastic cd - it's green
used a black magic marker, then i got Dale (the drummer) to sign as well
those two are the Melvins - been through more than a dozen bassplayers -
for whatever reason - it's beyond me - buzzo & dale moved to San francisco
from aberdeen washington without bothering to tell their bass player (matt Lukin)
that was in 87 -88 since then they've had a dozen at least including
Shirley Temples daughter ! (lori Black) she was Great fkn awesome
but she picked up aheroin habit and buzz had to let her go (she had been the gf too
for a couple of years) cheers you lot

For the best part I'm the best sort of fan. I just want to buy the music and go to gigs, and I might even buy a t-shirt too provided they're the right side of £20.

I do have an autographed gig ticket by Graham, but a friend talked a roadie into getting that signed for me on my 40th birthday. There was a time too where I had a photo taken with Graham in Hamburg, but that was a spur of a moment thing, his band wandered into the bar we were in and I was talked into seizing the moment. Left to my own devices I'd have left them all the hell alone, as I did Blur when they were milling about around me at The Mode.

Not talking about Graham anymore, in a wider sense I get a tiny buzz from having tweets liked / retweeted etc by celebs that I admire. I was retweeted by David Baddiel yesterday and I guess there's a part of my ego that's pandered by having someone in the public eye give me the briefest moment's of recognition, but I'm not hungry for that. Some people, I think, have the same thing, but on a pathological level. I'm not one of those!!

There are very few celebrities that I love to the point of wanting to meet them or ask for their autograph or anything. I guess that I'd be willing to wait for them if I knew they were to be at some place in my area (well, when I say "wait", i'm talking about an hour or two at most, not getting up at 5am and spend the day waiting for them huh) and maybe ask for their autograph (but I would mostly like to chat about their music/movies/books..., though 1) I'd be too shy to do so 2) they would not have time for that )

I haven't met many celebs anyway (or they were not close enough to me to do anything about it). I bumped into a French TV host once and just said Hi, same with two French humorists, then I met a French actor (he was standing in front of me in a boarding queue at the Airport, but he was wearing a cap and glasses so I assumed he didn't want to draw attention so i didn't dare to say anything), a French band who were very famous at the beginning of the 2000s: I had waited for them at the end of a gig and they signed my ticket and talked to me for 15 minutes, then a guy who was in a French band in the 90s (i was a fan back then and had a teenage crush on him lol) who then worked as a McCartney impersonator in the US: I met him about 10 years ago and talked to him at the end of a Beatles tribute gig: his agent then got in touch with me saying Richard (that's the guy's name) had really appreciated our chat and asked for my number, well, I never gave it. And then of course, there was Blur at Mode.

Had I not promised my son that I would try to give Graham the drawing he had made for his birthday, I would have never found the courage to tap on his shoulder at the end of the gig. I got so nervous when he turned around and came closer to me to hear whatever I had to say that I couldn't string two words together and made a complete fool of myself. I had a pen and a postcard of one of his artwork, I could have asked him to sign it for me but I already felt I had been too intrusive, so I didn't dare to. Oh, and Dave was standing just behind me at some point but I only managed a stupid grin

Ah yeah, I've been a fan of Mike Gayle (an English writer) since 2001, and I'd lie if I said I wasn't overjoyed when he first replied to a mail I'd sent him some fifteen years ago, telling me that I had made him laugh etc. We still exchange a few words now and then, and a couple months ago, he sent me the only book he had written that I didn't have (I only paid for the shipping) and he'd signed it for me, thanking me for my support over the years. Lately, I also posted a message on his Facebook profile, telling him what his books meant to me, and he replied "Wow, what a lovely message to wake up to! You really have made my day. Thank you. x " Well, that did make my day too.

When I see an actor/musician/actress... surrounded by fans screaming their name, asking for an autograph or a picture, or chasing them wherever they go, all i can think of is "Poor guy!". Some would say that is the price to pay when you're famous, but I don't know, it just doesn't feel right.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't try to talk to Graham should I meet him again, or ask someone I really admire for their autograph, but I'd already feel very lucky to have bumped into then, and I would most likely just grin stupidly while my heart would beat way too fast.